"Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass" is Simon Armitage's tongue-in-cheek tale of the battle between humanity and nature. The poem's speaker heads out into his garden, chainsaw in hand, to destroy some ornamental grass. Although his powerful chainsaw seems like "overkill," it turns out that even its destructive blade is no match for the grass's persistence: before long, everything the speaker thinks he's killed grows right back again. This poem suggests that human beings can never beat nature's quiet power, no matter how advanced our technology becomes. This poem first appeared in Armitage's 2002 collection The Universal Home Doctor.

• Read the full text of “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass”

• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Summary

• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Themes

  • 

    Human Technology Versus Nature

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-68
  • 

    Violent Force Versus Quiet Persistence

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-8
    • Lines 19-68

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass”

  • Lines 1-8

    It seemed an ...
    ... the dry links.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-12

    From the summerhouse, ...
    ... . . .

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-18

    from there, I ...
    ... gunned the trigger.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 19-26

    No gearing up ...
    ... into the brain.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 27-29

    I let it ...
    ... in its throat.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 30-38

    The pampas grass ...
    ... Overkill.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 38-45

    I touched the ...
    ... dark, secret warmth.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 46-51

    To clear a ...
    ... from the earth.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 52-59

    Wanting to finish ...
    ... it at that.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 60-64

    In the weeks ...
    ... the midday moon.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 65-68

    Back below stairs ...
    ... as it got.

    

    

    

    

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• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Symbols

  • 

    The Chainsaw

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-8: “All winter unplugged, / grinding its teeth in a plastic sleeve, the chainsaw swung / nose-down from a hook in the darkroom / under the hatch in the floor. When offered the can / it knocked back a quarter-pint of engine oil / and juices ran from its joints and threads, / oozed across the guide-bar and the maker’s name, / into the dry links.”
    • Lines 19-29: “No gearing up or getting to speed, just an instant rage, / the rush of metal lashing out at air, connected to the mains. / The chainsaw with its perfect disregard, its mood / to tangle with cloth, or jewellery, or hair. / The chainsaw with its bloody desire, its sweet tooth / for the flesh of the face and the bones underneath, / its grand plan to kick back against nail or knot / and rear up into the brain. / I let it flare, lifted it into the sun / and felt the hundred beats per second drumming in its heart, / and felt the drive-wheel gargle in its throat.”
    • Lines 35-45: “This was the sledgehammer taken to crack the nut. / Probably all that was needed here was a good pull or shove / or a pitchfork to lever it out at its base. / Overkill. I touched the blur of the blade / against the nearmost tip of a reed — it didn’t exist. / I dabbed at a stalk that swooned, docked a couple of heads, / dismissed the top third of its canes with a sideways sweep / at shoulder height — this was a game. / I lifted the fringe of undergrowth, carved at the trunk — / plant-juice spat from the pipes and tubes / and dust flew out as I ripped into pockets of dark, secret warmth.”
    • Lines 52-54: “I took up the saw / and drove it vertically downwards into the upper roots, / but the blade became choked with soil or fouled with weeds,”
    • Lines 65-68: “Back below stairs on its hook, the chainsaw seethed. / I left it a year, to work back through its man-made dreams, / to try to forget. / The seamless urge to persist was as far as it got.”
  • 

    The Grass

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 30-34: “The pampas grass with its ludicrous feathers / and plumes. The pampas grass, taking the warmth and light / from cuttings and bulbs, sunning itself, / stealing the show with its footstools, cushions and tufts / and its twelve-foot spears.”
    • Lines 55-56: “what was sliced or split somehow closed and mended behind, / like cutting at water or air with a knife.”
    • Lines 60-63: “In the weeks that came new shoots like asparagus tips / sprang up from its nest and by June / it was riding high in its saddle, wearing a new crown. / Corn in Egypt.”

• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “grinding its teeth in a plastic sleeve, the chainsaw swung / nose-down from a hook in the darkroom”
    • Lines 4-5: “When offered the can / it knocked back a quarter-pint of engine oil”
    • Line 19: “just an instant rage,”
    • Lines 21-26: “The chainsaw with its perfect disregard, its mood / to tangle with cloth, or jewellery, or hair. / The chainsaw with its bloody desire, its sweet tooth / for the flesh of the face and the bones underneath, / its grand plan to kick back against nail or knot / and rear up into the brain.”
    • Lines 28-29: “and felt the hundred beats per second drumming in its heart, / and felt the drive-wheel gargle in its throat.”
    • Lines 31-34: “The pampas grass, taking the warmth and light / from cuttings and bulbs, sunning itself, / stealing the show with its footstools, cushions and tufts / and its twelve-foot spears.”
    • Line 40: “I dabbed at a stalk that swooned, docked a couple of heads,”
    • Lines 61-62: “by June / it was riding high in its saddle, wearing a new crown.”
    • Lines 65-68: “Back below stairs on its hook, the chainsaw seethed. / I left it a year, to work back through its man-made dreams, / to try to forget. / The seamless urge to persist was as far as it got.”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 6-8: “juices ran from its joints and threads, / oozed across the guide-bar and the maker’s name, / into the dry links.”
    • Lines 13-14: “I trailed the day-glo orange power line / the length of the lawn and the garden path,”
    • Line 20: “the rush of metal lashing out at air, connected to the mains.”
    • Lines 27-29: “I let it flare, lifted it into the sun / and felt the hundred beats per second drumming in its heart, / and felt the drive-wheel gargle in its throat.”
    • Lines 44-45: “plant-juice spat from the pipes and tubes / and dust flew out as I ripped into pockets of dark, secret warmth.”
    • Line 50: “a flat stump the size of a barrel lid”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 15: “fed it out like powder from a keg”
    • Lines 55-56: “what was sliced or split somehow closed and mended behind, / like cutting at water or air with a knife.”
    • Lines 60-61: “In the weeks that came new shoots like asparagus tips / sprang up from its nest”
    • Lines 63-64: “I looked on / from the upstairs window like the midday moon.”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-68

  • Parallelism

    

    

    

    

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    Where parallelism appears in the poem:

    • Line 15: “then walked”
    • Line 16: “then walked”
    • Line 22: “cloth, or jewellery, or hair”
    • Line 23: “its bloody desire, its sweet tooth”
    • Line 25: “its grand plan”
    • Line 28: “and felt”
    • Line 29: “and felt”
    • Line 30: “The pampas grass”
    • Line 31: “The pampas grass”
    • Line 38: “I touched”
    • Line 40: “I dabbed”
    • Line 43: “I lifted”
    • Line 54: “choked with soil or fouled with weeds”
    • Line 55: “sliced or split”
    • Line 56: “water or air”
    • Line 62: “riding high,” “wearing”

• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Darkroom
  • Summerhouse
  • Mothballed
  • Powder from a keg
  • Coupled the saw to the flex
  • The mains
  • Pampas grass
  • Nearmost
  • Swooned
  • Docked
  • Undergrowth
  • Prised
  • Seethed
  • (Location in poem: Lines 2-3: “the chainsaw swung / nose-down from a hook in the darkroom”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Speaker

• “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass”

• More “Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass” Resources

  • External Resources

    • An Interview with Armitage — Watch a brief interview with Armitage in which he discusses his poetic philosophy.

    • Armitage's Official Website — Visit Armitage's website to learn more about his recent work.

    • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Armitage's life and work via the Poetry Foundation.

    • Armitage as Laureate — Learn more about Armitage's position and duties as Poet Laureate of the UK. 

    • What Is Pampas Grass? — Learn more about pampas grass, at once an invasive species and a modern home decor trend.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Simon Armitage

    • Hitcher

    • Mother, any distance

    • Out of the Blue (Excerpt)

    • Remains

    • The Manhunt

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